Cry for help
by XxTalented-x-CheesexX
Summary: It took Logan a minute to realize that she was crying. Dana Cruz was crying. She never cried. It was almost an oxymoron. So much so that Logan was sceptical of her ability to display such a thing... Major DL. Title may change and summary may change
1. Chapter 1

(I do not own Zoey 101, or any of it's characters)

This is my first Zoey 101 fic, and the first fic I've written in a long time. Sorry about the length. Please review :)

CHAPTER ONE

_Half melted ice cubes_

* * *

"Urghh, you are so gross…." Logan observed with disgust, as he barged univited into room 101, in his usual superior style, tossing a basketball and letting an expression of complete disdain confuse his 'pretty boy' features.

Dana didn't even need to raise her head from its comfortable position on the beaten up pillow, to picture Logan, pretty boy face and all, gawping at her with that patronizing pout that always made her blood boil. Quite possibly resulting in the violent tendancies she'd developed, of punching the crap out of her now deflated and compliant pillow. Subsequently it wasn't the least bit comfortable. Stupid Logan.

She hadnt seen him in three years. The Paris exchange trip hadnt exactly been fun. Not the way Dana interpreted the word. Nicole would have loved it. Lots of happy, smiley, talkative people who didn't take offence, even when you screamed at them to leave you alone. But there had been good aspects, one of the most highly rated, it being a 'logan-less' experience. She hadn't heard a single crude comment, sexual inuendo, or narcissistic remark from him since the day she left PCA for the programme, and for that she would be eternally tgrateful. Even more so if he hadnt just stepped foot in her room. With 'hello's like the one he had just offered, Dana wouldn't care if she never set eyes on him again. The thing with guys like Logan Reese was, even Paris wasn't far enough away…

"See you're as much of a slob as ever…" Logan added, continuing his sleep depriving tirade.

She'd arrive back at PCA late last night with really no opportunity to unpack. In an attempt to find some appropriate night wear she'd tried to be quiet and refined so as not to wake the other girls, but when she found the very un-Dana like method severly not working, she lost her temper and angrily emptied the contents of her suitcase on the floor. A rather confused Zoey and a grumpy stranger had come to, while Nicloe barely moved, except to kick slightly in her sleep like excited dreaming dogs do.

"Look at the state of this place. You've been back what? Less than a day? And you've slept for most of that. Dana it's almost 5PM."

She muttered something about jetlag, still refusing to open her eyes, or move. She was lying on her stomach, face burried in her pillow. If it had been more lifelike she might have actually suffocated, inevitably never hearing Logan's annoying voice ever again. Oh cruel world. Her duvet was twisted and crumpled beyond recognision, exposing her legs, most of which were on show due to the haphazard pjamas she'd had to make do with, of an oversized band T-shirt.

"Ever hear of an alarm clock?" Logan said sarcastically.

"Ever hear of the snooze button?" Dana retaliated, still not moving. She maintained her opinion that the snooze button was one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Although at this moment in time, she wouldn't have rated ear plugs too harshly.

"You gonna lay there all day?….Dana?….Dana?…"

Maybe if she ignorred him, he'd get the hint and go away.

"Hey, wake up Cruz!" he yelled, loosing his patience amazingly quickly and pelting her with the basketball he seemed to carry everywhere with him, proving that her theory only worked on angry farmyard animals. And Nicole. Go figure.

Seeing red as the ball struck her sharply in the back of the head, Dana hoisted herself up, seized the basketball and hurled it roughly back at Logan. It hit him non to gentally in the exact area Dana had intended, several seconds before he'd been able to anticipate her actions. After a dubious moment where the cogs were spinning at double speed in Logans little mind, he doubled over, clutching his crotch, with a look combined of surprise and missunderstood pain.

Dana couldn't understand his shock. It wasn't like this was the first time she'd taken her anger out on that particular area of his body, and it certainly wasn't the most painful. If she'd been in a more amicable mood she may have started an argument about him severly underestimating her basketball skills. He'd practically begged her to throw it at him. Logan had always thought that girls couldn't play sports. Even after she'd beaten him hands down to every challenge he'd ever proposed, his annoyingly small minded sexist opinion hadnt changed.

But Dana Cruz didn't do amicable. Never had. And now didn't seem like a good time to change a lifelong habbit. Angrily tossing him out of the room with a few choice words would do fine.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he damanded angrily.

"Same thing that was wrong with me three years ago. YOU!" she retaliated, on her feet now, standing menancingly infront of him not letting the fact that he was several inches taller and several stone heavier intimidate her in the slightest.

"And this stupid place, filled with stupid people who invite themselves places they are NOT WANTED!" Dana continued, shouting the last part.

"Fine. Whatever I'm going. I'll leave you to wake up on the right side of the bed. Sleep off the psychotic agressive bitch mood."

"Oooh someone invested in a dictionary."

"Missed you too." Logan said sarcastically, obviously still extremely annoyed at how hard Dana had managed to throw the ball at him, and stepped out, slightly awkwardly, into the hallway. Obviously being Logan, he couldn't resist making one last comment.

"You know, it's unbelievable how peaceful this place can be without a loud mouthed selfish little fu-"

His insult was cut short as Dana swung the door shut in his face, slamming it harshly back into its frame. The echo of the wood reverberating distorted the last few words of Logan's scentence, but she got the gist of it. The place was better off without her. She was an evil bitch. Yada, yada, yada. It was nothing she hadn't heard countless times before, from various different sources. She knew how the story ended.

Dana dramatically collapsed back onto her unmade bed, which bounced slightly and gave a cautious creek, more from the force of her leap than her actual weight. For some reason, as usual, the second she unwillingly left the unconditional love of her bed, it disowned her, and suddenly felt unbearably uncomfortable. The fact that she didn't have the patience to actually remake it forced her once again to get up. That and the heat of the typical Californian afternoon along with the annoying brightness of the sun glaring through her eyelids, made the hope of happily drifting back of to sleep little more than an impossibility.

Despite her tiredness Dana dragged herself from her bed, dropped onto her knees, and started to sift through the mess that Logan had looked upon with such disdain. She fished out a short dark blue denim skirt, from the crumpled up garments, and laid it on her bed which was in a similar state while she padded into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She washed her face, and smoothed her hair over with some frizz control serum, which separated out and definined her long curls. Then she wandered back into the bedroom, found clean underwear, pulled on her skirt, and slipped into a tight white strappy t-shirt, all while cursing Logan angrily under her breath. Dana yanked another t-shirt over her head, this one black, depicting merged menacing images of grey and white hearts, skulls and stars, and checked her appearance in the mirror. she sprayed a few scented breezes of perfume, roughly scrunched up her hair and grabbed a pair of slip on shoes, stormily stomping out and leaving the room in a state of disrepair.

PCA hadn't really changed. The campus was still sickeningly scenic. Lots of flowers, trees and pointless water features. It contrasted somewhat completely with her old dorm in Paris which had been a state since the day Dana moved in, and remained that way, in fluctuating degrees of destruction until the day she left. The campus itself had been pretty minimal composed mostly of massive concrete buildings, and never ending grey walkways. The only greenery or flowering colour that dared to challenge the system there were weeds, skillfully growing up between paving slabs. Of course they were quickly sprayed with weed killer, or trampled into submission by the hurried footsteps of students. Dana was never quite sure whether or no to receive this with pessimism or as a depressing omen.

Right that second she decided to take it as one. A bad omen warning her that she'd have to come back here after everything that she'd been through in the last two weeks. As she disheartedly wandered through PC's campus, dragging her heels slightly, her heart sank even more when she realized what exciting thrills lay ahead of her that afternoon.

Just up ahead everyone was gathered on a 'good' patch of grass. Anyone with experience of PCA knew that good grass was scarce compared to bad whether it was brown, patchy, un-mown or itchy, and therefore hard to come by in the summer months. At a guess Dana would have said that at least two people had been guarding it since eight am at the latest. Chase and Michael were arm wrestling, while Logan watched superiorly, with a smug look on his face as if their efforts were amazingly inferior to his abilities. Quinn was sat with a laptop rested of the grass infront of her, completely immersed in the screen. Zoey looked practically asleep, with her head resting in the lap of a girl Dana didn't recognize. She was tall and thin with coloured streak that look very out of place adorning her hair. Dana assumed she was Lola. The girl looked almost as bored as Zoey, who was nodding slightly, trying to appear enthusiastic and interested in the story Nicole was energetically telling, and probably had been for some time. Zoey practically cried with joy when she saw Dana hesitantly approaching the group.

"Dana!" she yelled leaping up, looking pretty much exactly the same as she had done three years ago. Her hair was a slightly darker shade of blonde, and she looked her age, as opposed to the very young looking girl Dana used to know, but to her disappointmet, Zoey still looked deterringly squeaky clean. Dana didn't know anybody else who could make a black, string tied halter neck bikini top like the one Zoey was wearing, look so innocent.

"Wow, you look amazing! It's so good to see you! How are you? How was France?" she gushed.

"Did you see the Eiffel tower?" Nicole said joining in. Dana glared at her.

"I've been in Paris three years. What do you think?"

Nicole blinked.

"I-I think that I have some um… stuff to do… somewhere. Bye!" she stuttered tripping as she hastily gathered her towel and sun tan lotion and left.

"Less than ten words and Nicole scarpered." Logan observed. "Do you always have this effect on people?"

"Only the ones I don't wanna talk to."

"Erm, Dana this is Lola. She came to PCA just after you left" Zoey said introducing the girl beside her.

"Hey." Dana said obediently.

"Sit." Chase instructed, patting the grass, and waving his other hand over the assortment of drinks. "Join us in our celebration of summer with a smoothie or juice."

Dana reluctantly accepted an apple juice, and carefully arranged herself on the floor, so as not to expose herself, dreading the question she knew was coming.

"So… how was Paris?" Michael asked.

It wasn't as if there was a big secret there, Dana just didn't have he energy to recap the three most boring years of her life.

"French." She said simply.

"Wow, sounds like you had a ball." Chase observed dryly.

"Dyed my hair." Dana shrugged.

It was now dark, and twisted down her back in enviable loose curls. She had considered dying it black in true teenage rebellion style, but after a complete disaster with a wash in wash out dye, Dana had decided to reconsider her natural colour of a shade somewhere between rich coffee and dark chocolate.

"Looks good." Zoey commented.

"Would you say that the change in your surroundings triggered the change in your appearance?" Quinn asked suddenly, glancing up from her computer screen for the first time, and analysing Dana through her glasses with a professional expression.

"I'm doing an experiment on environmental factors affecting certain species, and I've come across the hypothesis that 'Certain changes which occur in many humans are actually triggered by a need to adapt to their changing surroundings, which could be controversially recognized as a new and subtle form of evolution that we are actually aware of on some unconscious level.'"

"…I don't know." Dana said slowly, still trying to rearrange the many big words Quinn had just thrown at her into some sort of logical sentence.

Quinn 'hmmm'ed, and turned back to her computer screen.

"So, how was the exchange programme?" Zoey asked, looking just as confused by Quinn's scientific outburst. "I bet you met loads of new people."

"Yeah, when I went to Paris on vacation a few years ago, it was amazing. Really beautiful." Chase contributed.

"Speaking of beautiful, meet any guys? That accent in a cute boy would sooo make me go weak at the knees."

"But more importantly, how were your studies?" Chase butted in, deliberately changing the subject and making it crystal clear to Dana by the jealous tone of his voice that his boarder line obsessive crush on Zoey was still going strong, and even after three years she still had no clue how he felt about her.

"After all, school was the main reason you went to Paris, and is probably the most important institution in your life at the minute." He continued.

"Yeah, whatever…" Michael laughed.

"Seriously, it's a sociological fact that the education system is a secondary agency of socialization, and provides people with the morals and beliefs that they will need to become valid members of society. School is probably the biggest influence in our lives from the age of four, apart from the family."

"Ok, Chase we all know you're acing in sociology. No need to rub it in." Lola joked, playfully pushing him.

"So did 'ya have to learn French?" Michael enquired.

Dana exhaled loudly, and discarding her unwanted apple juice by throwing it on the grass behind her, becoming tired of the conversation topic.

"Can we change the subject?" she snapped. "I mean, is this place really so boring that me leaving three years ago is still the most important news?"

Logan snorted, flexing his muscles after just beating Lola quite easily in an arm wrestling match, his face brightened with an idiotic smirk as if he found her statement humorous in some way.

"I hate to break it to 'ya Cruz, but you were never that important."

"Look whose talking Mr ego of the year."

"Always had reason to be." Logan retorted, nodding at a passing giggling blonde girl who was obviously a fan, almost as if to prove his sickeningly true point.

Dana made a disgusted face, making it clear how nauseous she felt.

"Jealous?" Logan smirked.

Dana's mouth almost fell open. Okay, so she'd admit that he looked good these days. He'd gotten taller and a lot more solid, towering over her by several inches more than he used to. He had the sort of soft dark hair that girls dreamed of running they're fingers through, and the most amazing intense brown eyes that seemed to look right into you. He was almost cute. But after his complete invasion of her privacy this morning and his conceited suggestion just moments previously, Dana wasn't fooled. Logan Reese hadn't changed at all. He was still the same selfish little boy he always had been. Although those beautiful eyes appeared understanding and acute, they looked right through everyone and everything, unless they directly affected him. There was nothing behind them. Dana also had it on good authority that Logan's hair was strictly out of bounds. The no touching rule was made explicitly clear to a new conquest within the first two days of dating.

Dana couldn't stand him, and today, he was trying her patience beyond the limits she could force it to withstand.

"Oh, I'm jealous?" she demanded. "Jealous of what? This?"

Dana grabbed Michaels drink mid sip, and before he had the chance to protest, emptied the thick yellow contents of a homemade banana and strawberry smoothie over Logan's grey PCA sports top.

"Dana!" Zoey gasped.

"You are nuts!" Logan shouted. "Could you be more childish? What is it with you attacking me today?!"

"You woke me up, you threw a basket ball at me and you just called me jealous."

"Yeah, and you're really proving that your not…"

Dana reached for Nicole's abandoned smoothie, but she was too slow, and Logan saw her, grabbing an almost full jug of juice, and emptying it over her head, without so much as hesitating. Cold, sticky orange juice, complete with half melted ice cubes and slices of orange hit her, completely drenching her hair, weighing her curls down in long straight locks. It cascaded down her back and arms, covering her with bits of orange pulp.

Dana screamed, shaking her top to empty it of a few rogue ice cubes, which mercilessly shivered down her skin, leaving a trail of goosebump's in their wake. Logan was laughing. Dana saw red.

"This is my favourite top!" she yelled, launching a full scale violent attack on him. "Look what you've done to me, you complete asshole! I hate you!"

Logan tried to back away, unwilling to hit her back. He grabbed her arms and pinned them to her sides, but then tripped on the discarded orange juice jug and fell over, pulling Dana down with him. She was in the perfect position to empty the remaining jug of apple juice in his face.

"Dana, drop the jug!" Chase yelled, stepping in and trying to physically restrain her from Logan. She elbowed him hard in the ribs, causing him to back off into the sympathetic arms of Zoey who yelled "Okay guys that's enough!"

During the distraction, Logan gave Dana a slight shove, too gentle to actually hurt her, but enough to push her off him. It probably wasn't the smartest move. Dana fell backwards, dropping the jug, which impressively somersaulted through the air, almost vindictively emptying its icy contents all over him.

"You little bitch!" he shouted.

"You pushed me!"

"GUYS!" Zoey yelled, finally getting their attention. "That's ENOUGH!"

Dana stood up, slightly short of breath, only just noticing the crowd that had quietly gathered around the dispute. She glared at Logan then down at the state of herself, and went to leave, shoving through the pathetic crowd as harshly as she could, knocking two younger kids flying, as she went. Logan did the same as he silently walked away, for probably the first time, from being literally the centre of attention

Zoey, Lola, Chase, Michael and Quinn sat in a shocked state of relative silence in the middle of the rapidly dissipating circle.

"She seems um… nice." Lola observed meekly. "Is there something going on with her and Logan?"

Zoey shook her head knowingly.

"Not officially, but there was always something there. Not that either of them would admit it. They always argued way too much to just plain hate each other." She explained.

"And that little show just proves that they still like each other!" Quinn gushed excitedly.

"Is it just me or does she seem even angrier than she used to?" Chase asked Zoey, sounding slightly upset as he nursed his elbowed rib, fully expecting it to be badly bruised by tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

(I do not own Zoey 101 or any of it's characters.)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially Simply Sarah.

CHAPTER TWO.

_The hardest thing._

* * *

The soft thud, thud, thud echoed through the steam filled bathroom again, the realization of it not sounding nearly as threatening as Chase had intended, mostly due to the thickness of the solid oak door. Chase's complaints had little effect, except than to maybe encourage a few slowly forming water droplets to shiver down the mirror several seconds ahead of schedule. Logan could barely hear him over the blur of the shower, nor did he want to, so he closed his eyes, and played deaf, deciding to blame his hearing impediment on the strength of the water pressure.

Chase banged on the door again.

"Logan? How long are you planning on taking, coz its 9:30, and you've been in there almost an hour. Other people need to use the facilities man!"

Logan sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. Somehow, in carefully removing his smoothie stained sports top Logan had managed to drag the mess of it through his hair, resulting in a crisis of the worst kind. Three extremely time consuming and particularly attentive shampoos later, Logan was almost happy with the result. But almost wasn't good enough. With Logan Reese perfection was the only option.

He could probably chance another half an hour before Michael and Chase literally broke down the door and physically removed him. Logan didn't usually shower in the evenings, preferring instead to get up early, and take one after running. Chase and Michael were opposed to any early morning activity that wasn't sleeping and so chose to do as much the night before as possible. In Michael's case this had actually gone as far as getting dressed and sleeping in his clothes on several occasions, for the sake of an extra five minutes sleep.

It was dark outside, and the steam fogging up the room obscured any light that was somehow still left, shining through the window in vain, little more than a vague memory or a shadow of the day just passed. So for safety reasons if nothing else, Logan turned off the shower and carefully climbed out, wrapping a towel around his waist, without bothering to pay much attention to the fact that he was dripping wet, or the state of the bathroom. He wandered to the door leaving slowly evaporating footprints of water glistening in his wake on the cold marble effect tiling.

Logan unlocked, and heaved open the door just as Chase had raised a fist in preparation for another attack.

"What the hell were you doing in there, man?" Chase demanded, then a humoured realization of understanding hijacked his annoyed expression. "On second thoughts… I don't wanna know…"

"Don't tar me with your dirty minded brush." Logan snorted. "We all know what you get up to in there, enjoying the 'facilities' with nothing but lurid thoughts of the lovely Zoey for company…"

Chase immediately looked flustered and uncomfortable, the way he always did when someone talked about Zoey in a less than chivalrous manor, and to some extent from embarrassment Logan suspected, because of the element of truth in his theory.

"I do not." He muttered quietly and very unconvincingly.

"Yeah right…"

"Yeah… well… you like Dana!"

Logan blinked, at the childish and frankly weak comeback, seriously considering just laughing, and walking away. He'd admit Dana was hot. More than hot. She was in different league to the majority of girls he knew, purely because she didn't know how attractive she was. She looked amazing with dark hair. The long perfect curls contrasted with her flawless porcelain skin, which was a lot less tanned than he remembered, making her so striking that he couldn't get the image of her on top of him out of his mind. He realized this was wrong, partly down to the fact that she had been attacking him at the time. He had accidentally pulled her down when he fell, and she had ended up in a position which in any other situation would have been compromising, landing practically flat on top of him, her legs tangled in his, her face only inches from Logan's, her lips parted slightly, agonizingly close to his own. He remembered her eyes, which were things of beauty in their own right, deep and expressive, blazing with anger. He'd missed that fire that belonged only to her. No one else had that spark. Logan loved how easily he could provoke it. Always had.

"Your point? She's hot. Did you see her legs in that skirt? Dude, there isn't a guy on campus that DOESN'T like Dana." He admitted condensing his thoughts down into typical 'guy' talk.

Chase, not being a typical guy, made a muttered comment about girls not being objects, and Logan being an idiot, before he finally gained access to the elusive bathroom, and shut the door with a deliberate slam, in Logan's face.

Logan smiled, making his way back to his dorm room. He hastily hurled the towel onto his unmade bed, not even bothering to check if he was exposing himself. Luckily the room was empty, but Logan rarely busied himself with worries about low self-esteem, having always had confidence that if anything was too high. Despite being constantly reminded of this by the disgusted and mentally scared Chase and Michael, Logan still found it hard to be discreet and casually wandered around in the buff almost daily.

He quickly dressed; pulling on boxers, a pair of faded comfortable jeans, and his trademark black sleeveless sports top, which he knew flattered his strong chest, and regularly worked out biceps. He checked his appearance in the mirror, practicing a few flirty smiles and gestures, before he ran a hand through his damp hair in an attempt to dry it, then smoothed in some hair product that gave it that 'Logan Reese-esque' gleam. Satisfied that he looked well groomed but at the same time suitably rugged and casually care free, he embarked on the practically impossible task of finding his trainers.

A few hours ago he had been almost asleep. The hot day had taken everything out of him, and he was just about ready to curl up and go to sleep, but the shower had roused him. The hot water and steamy conditions had stirred his senses, and refreshed him so much he was practically buzzing with excess energy he knew for a fact he didn't actually have. Rather than lie in bed, bored and impatient, waiting for sleep to once again become a realized priority, he decided to tire himself out with a run down to the basketball courts and a quick practise.

Logan threw up his creased duvet in desperation. Sure enough there lay a trainer, along with several schoolbooks and that mornings unfinished cornflakes. Despite his earlier comments to Dana, Logan had no right to pass judgement. His room, or his third of the room, was in as much of a state, if not more than hers. He was an impatient person. Spur of the moment. Tidying up after himself never seemed to take priority. Logan let a look of disgust illustrate his annoyance as he pulled an old sock out of the cereal bowl, and dumped it in the bin.

He'd had his trainers earlier. He was wearing them that afternoon, and had discarded them with the rest of his clothing when he'd gone for a shower. His trousers were outside the bathroom, and his shirt was on Chase's bed. Logan cringed, suddenly thinking to remove it, and finding banana smoothie smeared all over the pillow. In a moment of inspiration, he turned it over, pushing all thought of remorse out of his mind, and continued his search. After another ten minutes, his method of throwing everything out of place in a fit of annoyance hadn't paid off. The room was in a state of despair when Logan finally remembered his actions more clearly, and found his missing trainer propping open the widow that Michael had broken earlier in the term by knocking the hinge out of place and rendering it useless. Logan had shoved his shoe into the stubborn gap to let a much-needed breeze into the stuffy room. Logan reclaimed his trainer in triumph, letting the window fall with a shuddering bang, and hurriedly pulled them on. He grabbed his basketball, checked his appearance one last time in the mirror, and headed out of the dorm.

By the time he reached the basketball courts it was after hours. The whole campus was deserted, and the clear blue almost overly bright sky that had been blinding him just hours before, seemed to have spiralled into some misplaced depression of dark grey, and wisps of rain threatening clouds. There was definitely a chill in the air.

Logan took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of the cold damp oxygen in his lungs. He liked it like this. Cool and quiet. Wandering around at night, despite being against the rules and probably slightly dangerous, gave him time and space to think. Contrary to popular belief Logan did have thoughts and feelings. Just because he wasn't pathetically sensitive and open about them to such an extent that half the girls on campus thought he was gay like a certain bushy haired freak, didn't mean he was completely emotionless and dead inside.

The basketball court wasn't locked. It never was. A lot of the more athletic students chose to use it before school, and in a bid to save time, and use it for sleep; the coach just left it open all night, and pretended otherwise. Logan put a hand on the rusted metal wiring that made up the shoddy crisscrossed door, and started to open it, before stopping dead. A loud pounding slam made him jump, forcing all of his defences and senses that had become casually relaxed in the seemingly safe environment, to bolt awake.

The abrupt noise had come from the basketball court, and Logan quickly realized that it was the sound of a near death experience, as he discovered that the cause was a forcefully thrown basketball smacking the wired wall outside the court, just above his head. Obviously he wasn't the only person who liked to practise at this time of night. But unlike him, this guy really needed the practise. They somehow managed to miss every other hoop. Logan stood in the shadows and watched silently, not wanting to make himself know straight away. When the figure turned round and stepped into what scarce light was available, Logan didn't regret his decision.

It was Dana. She hadn't seen him, her attention more distracted by her failure to get the ball in the basket. She hurled it again, the sleeve on her wide necked grey top slipping off her left shoulder with the effort, a few rebellious curls escaping the ponytail fixing her long dark hair at the back of her head. Again she missed. The ball bounced off the hoop with a harsh metallic twang, leaving it shivering in the cold night air. Dana's knee's found the concrete floor, her shoulders shaking.

At first Logan thought she was just retrieving the basketball that had skidded to a halt at her feet, shivering with the sudden realization that it was cold out. It was a reasonable conclusion to come to. After all, he was cold and she was only wearing a thin top and shorts, for which Logan was extremely grateful, and her haphazardly tied back hair was still slightly wet from when she'd washed it. But if she was cold, she wasn't showing it. Dana brought her hands up to her head, raking all the loose hair back out of her face and gazed up. The scarce light from the full moon put a silver highlight though her hair, and paled her face.

It took Logan a minute to realize that she was crying. Dana Cruz was crying. She never cried. It was almost an oxymoron. So much so that Logan was sceptical of her ability to display such a thing. He studied her for the best part of a minute, and sure enough the girl was in tears. Her eyes were huge and filled with a confusion of emotions. Fear, sorrow, pain. She cried in relative silence, the tears shivering down her face, accompanied only by the sound of her slightly irregular breathing, and the occasional gasp for air. Something told Logan that she wasn't crying because she'd missed a couple of baskets. She looked heartbroken. Despite his commonly known lack of intuition, Logan knew that something was seriously wrong.

Dana lowered her gaze from the sky, the stars obviously not giving her the answers she needed and buried her head in her hands.

This felt wrong. Logan didn't want to be seeing her like this. Vulnerable, and oblivious to his presence. He felt like he was spying on her, but for some reason he couldn't look away. Logan had never known anyone to look so beautiful while they were crying. It was a very hard thing to achieve, but Dana did it effortlessly. She looked so young and innocent and perfect that it almost hurt Logan to keep to keep his gaze on her. So he left.

In all honesty Logan didn't know what else he could have done. If he had let her know he was there, she'd never forgive him for watching her break down. If he tried to comfort her, she'd probably slap him. The experience would most likely end with his death, or at least an attempt on his life. So he left.

Now, Logan definitely had his faults, but he wasn't in the habit of deserting distraught damsels. He was in a state of shock. Seeing Dana like that was unnerving to say the least. Partly because breaking down in tears was the last thing anyone would expect her to do. Partly because seeing her do so stirred up such extreme feelings that it actually scared him.

So he left. Feeling sick to his stomach, he silently turned, and walked away. Leaving her alone and in unexplained despair in the empty basketball court. It was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.

* * *

Please review :)


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys. Thankyou fee1993 and simply sarah(I've never had any of my writing decribed as wonderful perfect and beautiful before :) thankyou!) for reviewing.

I've noticed that the majority of people who have this story on alert arent reviewing, but I'd really appreciate theyre opinions.

* * *

CHAPTER THREE

_Love is a made up concept_

* * *

It was Monday morning again. The worst time of the week for many reasons. Two of which being, it was five days away from the next weekend and it started off with a double period of maths. It wasn't unusual to wake up with a pounding headache on Mondays. Logan had come to the conclusion that it was his body's way of coping. Giving him a headache meant that he was unable to think too hard. This of course meant that he was currently failing in maths, but on the plus side, his brain hadn't exploded yet either.

As usual, Logan's head was killing him, although he was pretty sure it was more from lack of sleep than anything else. His eyes had refused to close and stay closed until about 4:30 that morning. Whatever the reason, it wasn't being helped by the bedlam coming from room 101. Logan glared at Chase, silently cursing him, for dragging him and Michael to the girl's dorm on their way to lessons. Chase had wanted to return a book he'd borrowed from Zoey; god knows why it couldn't have waited, and had inadvertently got them involved in the latest drama.

The door flew open, and Nicole ran out screaming her trademark high pitched scream, deafening anyone within a two mile radius. Her long damp hair was tangled and her eyes were wild and hungry for blood.

"She threw my hairdryer out of the window!" she squeaked, and screamed again, before running barefoot down the corridor towards the exit, like a mother racing to retrieve her lost child. She didn't even seem to notice that she was only wearing her 'hello bunny' pyjamas and matching fluffy pink dressing gown. Nicole was never going to live this down. People had only just forgotten about the incident with her pants by the same name. It was almost a shame. Almost.

Logan silently stared at Chase and Michael. They gawped back. Before anyone could mutter so much as a 'what the hell?' Nicole raced back down the corridor, her face crimson, the shattered shell of her hairdryer and the tangle of wires that had been exposed were cradled lovingly in her arms.

"She BROKE my hairdryer!" she updated in little more than a sob.

"Don't you have like three more?" Zoey asked curiously, appearing at the door to room 101.

Logan noticed that she looked a lot more 'together' than Nicole. Her blonde hair was still slightly messy and untended to, but she was freshly made up, and dressed in her signature short skirt, matched with a low cut, slightly daring dark pink top printed with tiny yellow and white flowers. Chase had noticed too.

He was practically standing there gawping at her open mouthed. Logan fully expected him to start dribbling at any moment. What an idiot. No girl was worth all the anguish Chase had put himself through trying to work up the courage to ask Zoey out. She really wasn't that special. Sure, she was pretty. But the world was full of pretty girls. Logan's philosophy was to try and get through as many of them as possible. But as many times as he had tried to drill this into Chase's head, it just wouldn't stay there. He thought he was in love. Logan knew better.

He'd seen so much more than Chase. He'd witnessed his parent's divorce, which was messy to say the least. He'd watched his brother fall in and out of love with every pretty girl that looked his way. He himself had made out with so many girls that specific names and faces were lost to him. And he had never once felt that elusive spark or instinctive knowledge that the girl whose tongue he was currently sucking could actually mean something of any significance to him. Logan therefore had it on good authority that love didn't exist. It was a made up concept created only in order to base movies around, and make people feel unfulfilled and incomplete. Couples who claimed to be in love were only together out of misinterpreted convenience, and the overwhelming fear of dying alone.

Logan smirked at the pessimism of his own views. Who'd have thought he could be so deep?

"I have four more actually. Not including the leaf blower." Nicole corrected zoey. "But that is not the point! This one's my favourite. It makes my hair so soft and frizz free. It's DESIGNER."

"You can get designer hairdryer's?" Michael asked in shock. "Why? It's not like anyone's gonna KNOW you use a designer hairdryer… I feel incredibly stupid just SAYING designer hairdryer…"

"Michael, shut up." Dana snapped, stealing the words from Logan's mouth, as she clomped out of her dorm room in a pair of killer knee high black leather boots, tat added several inches onto her petite height.

It seemed that the rough and ready, sports gear only, Dana was a thing of the past. Unlike Zoey she had dressed in consideration of the morning's cold chill, in a pair of figure hugging grey trousers under the boots, and a tight grey waistcoat style half shirt over a plain black top. Her long hair was left to fall over her shoulders in tousled dark curls like yesterday. Logan clamped his jaw shut, and did his best not to stare in awe at her, annoyed at how much he reminded himself of Chase.

"Oh, are you done destroying my property?" Nicole demanded coldly.

"Unless your 'property' wakes me up, trips me over, or annoys me in any way, yeah."

"You are so mean!"

"You are so irritating!" Dana whined, doing her best impression of Nicole.

Nicole bit her lip, obviously trying to refrain from saying something, but her being Nicole it didn't last very long.

"Oh. My. God. I LOVE you're boots! Don't you love her boots? I love her boots!"

Dana groaned, and turned away from Nicole.

"Are you gonna stand there all day? Move." She snapped at Chase and Michael, and then glared at Logan. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing." He replied quietly.

She was obviously expecting a smart remark; the start of an argument, and the look on her face betrayed her confusion. But she said nothing, and just pushed through Chase and Michael who were still in the same position she had just ordered them out of, shoving Chase hard in the chest.

"Owww!" he moaned, tenderly massaging his ribs, which were already bruised from Dana's earlier attack. "What up' with the violence?" he whined, as soon as she was out of earshot.

"I don't know, but she's in one hell of a mood." Zoey groaned. "She stomped back in last night way after curfew, messed the dorm up again, and bit my head off when I asked if she was okay. She and Nicole have been at each other's throats for like the last 24 hours, and for once Nicole hasn't actually done anything."

"I know!" Nicole agreed. "I am like the completely innocent party, and I'm being mercilessly- what do you mean 'for once'?"

"…Figure of speech." Zoey muttered weakly.

Nicole shrugged. "AND, Lola's so scared of her, she went to take a shower like an hour and a half ago, and she hasn't even come back yet."

"She yelled at Lola?" Chase inquired.

"No, not yet. But you have to admit, Dana is pretty scary."

"Terrifying." Chase agreed.

"She reminds me of Godzilla!" Michael laughed. "You know the part where he screams, and all the buildings shake, and the people fall over?"

"Lay off her guys." Logan found himself saying. "She only just got back. She probably just needs time to settle back in."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… dude, did I just hear you defend Dana?"

"What's you're point?"

"Let's just say I've heard worse insults flying between you guys."

"Yeah, like yesterday." Nicole agreed. "You threw a jug of juice at her!"

Logan sighed. He couldn't exactly explain that he'd practically spied on her last night, seen her burst into unexplained tears, then left her, and had felt the need to collapse into a similar state himself ever since. He couldn't even explain it to himself.

"We're gonna be late for class." He muttered, following Dana's leave.

Chase opened his mouth to say something, but laughed instead, his train of thought altering, as Lola waddled past them wearing nothing but a towel.

"But not as late as Lola." He grinned.

Her dripping wet hair was twisted up in a second towel, which pushed her eyebrows down; enhancing the glare of pure evil she shot at Chase.

"Shut it Mathew's. You too." She warned Zoey, who had already started giggling.

"Eww, you look like a raisin! Gross!"

Logan exhaled loudly, and shook his head, making the decision to abandon his friends, and the imminent conversation topic of Zoey's love for grapes and repulsion of raisins, and go to class. He didn't mind being a few minutes late, but he knew that Nicole and Zoey wouldn't leave without Lola, who notoriously took forever to get ready, and Chase would never even think about letting Zoey walk to class without him for protection. Michael would rather be anywhere than math class. Logan felt the same way, but if he skipped another lesson, or was noticeably late, he was pretty sure that Mr Geddes would contact his father to discuss his rapidly falling grades.

"Mr Reese! How nice of you to join us. Private jet a little late this morning?" The seemingly distracted Mr Geddes remarked snidely, the second Logan tried to sneak past him.

"Yeah, and they brought me the wrong damn coffee too!" Logan joked; knowing that the slightly offensive insult his teacher had just offered meant that although he was thin ice, he wasn't about to fall through it. Now if the insult had implied questionability about Logan's sexuality or implemented him and his mother in some sort of sexual encounter, he'd know he was in trouble. This usual only occurred if you arrived 20 minutes or more after the bell. By Logan's watch he was exactly six minutes late.

"Exactly six minutes and forty second's late Mr Reese. Don't think I won't bring this up with the Dean. Now please take your seat next to smiley over there, and give me the answer to this equation."

Logan smirked at the expression that crossed Dana's face in response for being referred to as 'smiley'.

"That's what's known as sarcasm, by the way." Mr Geddes continued in a patronizing tone. "I called you smiley cause' your not."

Logan couldn't help but snicker.

Dana looked at him, expressionless, and spat "Oh, so you DO understand wit. I was dreading having to tell you that's why some girls say your cute."

Logan's smirk disappeared. Dana being hostile and rude was nothing new, but it was usually provoked. He hadn't even said a word to her yet.

Before he could protest to being persecuted for a crime he hadn't committed, Mr Geddes cleared his throat and jabbed his authority proving permanent marker at the complicated looking equation scribbled on the board.

"Mr Reese?"

It must have been obvious that he didn't have a clue what the answer was. If he revealed this it would have been equally obvious that he hadn't done his homework, and that he had spent the last three lessons ripping paper into tiny scraps, balling them up and throwing them into the back of Chase's hair.

He gawped at the nonsense jumble of letters and numbers, broken up by various symbols. Then across at Dana's paper, where, sure enough the equation was written down and completed. His memory of her maths skills was hazy, but he'd take the risk. Or so he thought.

"OW!" Logan yelped, jumping out of his seat. "What the fuck was that?"

He clasped a hand around his bicep, and found a few drops of blood. She'd stabbed him. The little bitch had stabbed him in the arm with her compass without so much as a moment's hesitation.

"MR REESE, I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH LANGUAGE IN MY CLASSROOM!" Mr Geddes bellowed. "I'll be contacting your father about this, as well as the Dean. Detention here after school. One hour."

"What?! An hour?? Why?"

"Arriving late, disrupting my lesson, swearing, and failing to hand in your homework. Oh, and making Mr Mathews head look like an over decorated Christmas tree last week. He may not have noticed, but I did."

Logan slumped back down into his seat, and spent the rest of the lesson in relative silence, the prospect of a looming detention weighing heavily on his mind. Dana did the same, speaking only to elbow him every now and then and snappily inform him that he was too far over on her side of the table. Each time she did it, was slightly more forceful, and Logan knew she was just trying to get a reaction out of him. To her obvious surprise he obediently moved every time she shoved him, whether he was on her side of the table or not. The afternoon's lessons acted as a near enough sequel to the morning. By the time the bell rang at four to indicate the end of the day, Dana seemed to have given up on her 'annoy the hell out of Logan' plan, and slumped off somewhere.

The rest of the gang seemed to be using the opportunity in a similar way as this morning. To discuss Dana.

"Wait, she STABBED you?" Michael demanded in disbelief. "And you told us to lay off her this morning. Dude how stupid do you feel now?"

"I'd probably stab someone who was trying to cheat off me." Quinn reasoned.

"The girl's nuts." Michael reaffirmed, choosing to ignore Quinn's comment.

"At least I'm not on my own in detention, though." Logan said with a grin, knowing that the rest of his friends were also being punished for they're 'total disregard for timekeeping' according to Mr Geddes.

"Yeah, you know that Dana actually stole Lola's clothes?" Nicole told him, changing the subject back to Dana.

"What?"

"Well I kinda borrowed one of her shirts this morning just to wear to the showers. I didn't think she'd mind, or even notice with all her stuff just hurled on the floor. When I got out of the shower, the shirt was gone along with my pants and towel. I had to wait in there naked for someone else to come in so I could get something to cover myself up with." Lola explained, her face reddening from embarrassment.

"How do you know it was Dana?"

"When I finally got back to the dorm the stuff was all nicely folded up on her bed."

Logan smirked slightly. It was a really mean thing to do, but still hilarious. He wished he'd thought of it way back on prank week all those years ago.

"It's not funny!" Lola growled. "I've only just met the girl. I haven't even had a conversation with her yet. How did I deserve to be stranded naked for an hour?!"

"We probably should have warned you that Dana's not big on sharing her clothes." Zoey said apologetically.

"Yeah, one time she chased me round campus cause' I borrowed a pair of her shoes. Then I fell over, and twisted my ankle, and she almost killed me coz I scuffed one of her stupid shoes." Nicole shared reminiscently.

"Anything else I should be warned about?" Lola asked sarcastically.

"She's grumpiest first thing in the morning. She doesn't like to be woken up." Zoey said.

"Especially by a hairdryer." Nicole added.

"Don't touch her stuff." Chase said.

"Or her food."

"Don't argue with her, she thinks she's always right."

"Never insult her taste in music, even though NU mental sucks… and don't ever ask her to turn it down."

"She hates-"

"Guy's! Stop!" Lola yelled. "I was being sarcastic. Seriously, I'm not gonna let some spoiled little moody bitch boss me around."

"Yeah, I wouldn't say that in front of her either..." Chase said sheepishly.

"If living with her is really gonna be that bad, I actually don't wanna share a dorm with her." Lola continued.

"Yeah, me either. If any of you had bothered to tell me she was coming back, I would have asked to be reassigned." Nicole grumbled. "I can't deal with her until we graduate! It's forever away. I might actually die."

"So what are you gonna do?" Michael asked, obviously incredulous at the way they were talking.

"I don't know." Nicole said, her expression a thoughtful one. "I suppose we could ask Cocoa to find her another dorm."

"Don't you think that's a little harsh?" Zoey whimpered, wide eyed. "She's only been back two days."

"Yeah, well, maybe she should think about the way she treats people." Nicole said adamantly. "With any luck maybe she'll go back to France."

"Nicole!"

"What? She's moody, and violent, and messy, and she broke my hairdryer. She doesn't care about anyone but herself. Zoey, even you've said how selfish and pig headed she is. Admit it: you don't wanna live with her either."

"No, I don't. Not when she's like this. It makes everyone feel bad." Zoey sighed. "I suppose, maybe she could live somewhere else, just until she's settled back in properly."

"Yes! Glory to the world, the witch is dead. Or at least out of room 101. I mean-"

"Nicole, shut up." Logan snapped suddenly.

"What? You shut up! Why should I shut up? I don't have to-"

Nicole fell silent, following Logan's gaze, and realizing the reason for his abrupt interruption. Seven pairs of eyes widened as they rested on the figure standing well within earshot of the table. Dana.

"…Dana…Hey. Been there long?" Zoey asked anxiously, breaking the shocked silence.

Even without her choked answer of "Long enough." It was obvious that she'd heard everything.

Logan's breath caught in his throat, and he suddenly felt very cold as he recognized the expression she was wearing as just a fraction of the soul sucking vulnerability and confusion he had witnessed last night. She looked slightly unsteady on her own legs, and unsure of what to do with her arms like she'd only just acquired these things and had no idea how to look natural with them. When she spoke, her voice brought about similar thoughts.

"Don't worry guys, I'll um… I'll be packed and gone before you get back to tonight."

"Dana don't be stupid, where are you gonna sleep?" Zoey wailed, almost in tears.

Dana shrugged shakily, and muttered "'Not your problem." As she hurried away.

Zoey leaped up, determined to follow her friend, and knocked over her chair with the force.

Logan did the same, but with a greater degree of grace, and sprinted after Dana, before the traumatised blonde could argue with him.

She was fast, and obviously wise to his plan of following her. Logan finally caught up with her on the second floor of the English block, after she'd ducked in there in a failed attempt to loose him.

"Dana! Dana, wait."

"Go away. I'm serious Logan leave me alone."

He reached out and grabbed her arm. Before she managed to put up enough of a struggle to make her escape, Logan swiftly bundled her into a conveniently empty classroom, hurriedly slammed the door, and locked it with the key that the caretaker had left in the lock.

Logan turned to his unwilling captive. She had her back to him. She even looked beautiful from behind. Long slender limbs, tiny waist, perfect posture. He thought it odd considering the mood she was in, that she hadn't tried to kill him already as he had just effectively kidnapped her. But he decided not to question it.

"Dana?" he called softly. "What's wrong?... Talk to me?"

She carefully turned around. Those beautiful hazel eyes that insisted on haunted him, gazed into his. She wasn't screaming. She wasn't yelling. She wasn't hitting him. All of these things were good. But there was something slightly unnerving about a tame calm Dana in this sort of situation.

She let a soft sigh escape from her lips before they began to quietly, seductively form the words:

"You lock me in a room… and all you wanna do is talk?"

Logan barely had time to comprehend what she'd just said, before Dana roughly shoved him against the door, closed the already irrelevant distance between them, and forced her lips hard onto his.

Logan's eyes, wide from shock, instinctively fluttered shut. He shifted slightly, so that the door handle wasn't pressing into his back, and slid his arms tight around Dana's waist, accustoming himself to the feeling of her tiny form secure against him. Her lips tasted of liquorice. Her hair smelled of coconut. Her elegant hands felt cold against his skin as she wrapped them around his neck.

Neither noticed the faint clicking sound, or the momentary shudder the door gave. If they had, they'd probably have rationalized quite reasonably that it was protesting against the weight of two people crashed into it. In actual fact, the temperamental hinges in the old door had finally done what they'd been threatening to do for a long time, and given way. The lock had slipped. Although neither Dana nor Logan was in any position to be conscious of it, they were trapped.

* * *

Please review :)


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys. Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Ive got a lot of stuff going on with schoolwork at the moment, so I'll apologize in advance for late updates. This chapters not as long as i wanted it to be, and it took me ages to get into writing it.

Thankyou to everyone who reviewed. Please do the same for this chapter. Ta :)

CHAPTER FOUR

_Invisible_

* * *

He kissed her back. Obviously. It wasn't like Dana didn't expect him to. You'd be hard pushed to find a girl that Logan wouldn't make out with, if she forcefully initiated it. He wasn't exactly picky. Female, and breathing were really the only specifications Logan insisted on, and Dana was pretty sure he'd waver on at least one of those at some point in his life. 

She knew he'd return the kiss, so why did her eyes flutter open in a second of surprise, when she felt his lips softly reciprocate?

She should have known there was something seriously wrong, when the epiphany to kiss Logan struck, and didn't make her want to vomit. She should have concluded right there and then that she had finally lost every last one of her dwindling marbles. Instead, she dug herself a very deep hole. Or rather she dug herself a medium sized hole, to add to her ever-growing collection of hole's that were getting so catastrophically huge, they were threatening to swallow the entire universe.

It didn't take long for Dana's medium sized problem with Logan to explode into an earth-shattering dilemma. First he'd dropped her, like he'd suddenly realized he was locked in a passionate cliché with his own flaming grandmother. Then the lights turned off automatically, because the school was so ridiculously 'energy efficient'. Then the stupid door thought it would be hilarious to keep them trapped in such a compromising situation, knowing full well that any desperate pleas for help would remain unheard until exactly 7:45 the next morning, when the caretaker checked all of the classrooms had enough chalk.

"What do you mean it's stuck?!" Dana demanded, through gritted teeth, not entirely managing to keep her voice as controlled as she would have liked.

"I mean it's stuck." Logan snapped back, in a similarly unsteady voice. Somehow, despite the fact that he was obviously unnerved by the events of the last few minutes, and facing the prospect of a very painful murder at Dana's hands, Logan still managed to lace his voice with that self assured 'I'm better than you' tone. And it made Dana want to throttle him.

"The lock gave way, and the hinges slipped. We're not getting out of here until someone saws through." He spat, grudgingly informing her of something other than the ridiculously obvious.

Of course, as the icing on the cake, there was no way to contact the outside world. Dana's cell phone was dead, and Logan had left his on the table he'd practically jumped over to follow her. They were really making teenage organizational skills seem nonexistent.

Dana exhaled two deliberately long and calming breaths, before she spoke again.

"At least I don't have to worry about my sleeping arrangements for tonight." She reasoned with a shrug.

"Yeah… You know, you've really got your priorities rationalized…"

"Ooh, was that dictionary a great buy or what? I bet it provided you with hours of word-ly fun. AND, you're now marginally more intelligent than a lamppost."

"And, she's back to 'bitch-mode'." Logan announced to no one in particular, like he was providing the running commentary. "What happened? Two minutes ago, you had you're tongue in my mouth!"

"Urrgh, shut up."

"No I wont fucking shut up. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing is wrong with me!" she shouted at him.

"Dana, you're a freaking nut job! Is it any wonder no one wants to share a room with you?!"

He must have seen her crumple. Even in the diminishing light the change in the atmosphere was painfully obvious. He knew he'd gone too far.

"Dana… I'm sorry. I didn't mean that." He said, his voice barely more than an anguished whisper.

"Yeah you did." She whimpered.

"Dana-"

"It's okay." She interrupted, knowing she only had a set amount of time before the all too familiar threat of tears spiralled out of her control. "It's true. No one wants me around. I can't even get YOU to kiss me for longer than five seconds."

She saw him bristle uncomfortably, either out of annoyance at her evidently low opinion of him, or confusion as to why she'd kissed him in the first place.

"Don't worry." She assured him "I'm not in love with you or anything, I… I just wanted to make sure that I wa-wasn't… invisible y-yet!"

Her original calm tone had risen to a high-pitched wail towards the end of the sentence, and the last few words were pretty much indecipherable. The tears were falling like there was no tomorrow, and Dana brought her hands up to her face, and tried to stop the stupid little snuffly sounds she was making, because she was actually reminding herself of Nicole.

"Invisible…?" Logan breathed, somehow actually understanding hysterical girl talk. Dana suspected this wasn't the first time he'd had to deal with this kind of situation.

"Dana, you are anything but invisible." He asserted strongly, and actually brought himself to place a comforting hand over hers. Not something he usually did so willingly, especially after such a recent conversation that involved the dreaded 'L' word.

"Try telling my mom that." Dana choked in between sobs.

She told him the whole story. For some reason, once she'd started, she couldn't seem to shut up, and the whole sorry mess came babbling out. She told him about how her parents had realized that they didn't love each other anymore, and that they'd only stayed together for so long because they didn't think she was old enough to cope with them divorcing. She told him that her dad was moving to Ohio with 'Shandice' the cocktail waitress he'd shacked up with, who was just about old enough to be her older sister.

Then she managed to whimper out the part about her granddads sudden death, and how he was the only one who'd ever believed in her. She hadn't even been able to say goodbye.

"And my mom hates me!" she sobbed, now crying so much that Logan had pulled her into his arms in an attempt to calm her down.

"Dana, you mom doesn't hate you." He promised soothingly.

"Yes she does! She didn't even want me to leave Paris. My grandma had to persuade her. And you know how long I was home before she shipped me off here? Three days! She made me miss the funeral."

She collapsed into another wave of the seemingly never-ending tears, and buried her face into Logan's chest. He didn't seem to mind the fact that his shirt was now tear stained and covered in mascara.

"And what do they mean that I'm old enough to deal with them splitting up? I'm not old enough! I'm only seventeen!"

"At least they waited." Logan said quietly. "Mine split when I was six. My mom pissed off in search of fame, and my dad married her best friends 19 year old daughter."

Dana blinked. She could tell by his tone that this wasn't something he was comfortable with sharing. He had never said much about his family. The only consistent piece of information was that his dad was a famous movie producer.

"It only lasted seven months. He's now on wife number four. But my brother told me he's getting way too cosy with the female lead in his latest movie. Seems he's looking to make it five."

"Parents suck." Dana summarized bitterly. "And what kind of stupid name is 'Shandice'?"

"My brother once dated a 'Veronique'." Logan laughed "And this girl called 'Indigo'."

Dana momentarily considered making a comment about the womanising gene in his family, but she immediately decided against it. Instead, she tried her hardest to be nice. They sat and talked about stupid names for about half an hour, trying to one up each other, until Dana just started making them up and swore blind that her room mate in Paris was called 'JaffaCakia'. Logan didn't believe her.

Dana woke up comfortably nestled in Logan's arms. She actually felt mildly better for sharing her soul-crushing secret with someone, even if that someone was Logan. She had a feeling she'd have blurted it out to just about anyone if they picked the opportune moment. Some things just kept getting bigger until it was impossible to contain them.

Credit where credit was due, Logan hadn't been terrible company. She might have even considered changing her opinion of him from 'hopeless conceited wanker' to 'just-about-bearable conceited wanker'. That was until she realized just where his hand was oh so casually resting.


	5. Chapter 5

I am so incredibly sorry for my lack of updates with this story, I hope people are still reading it. I promise updates will be a lot more frequent for a while, coz i have absolutely nothing to do all summer.

CHAPTER FIVE

_Venting_

* * *

Logan had been woken up in some extremely unwelcome ways in the past. During prank week he'd opened his eyes to find himself, bed and all outside and in full view of the entire campus, wearing nothing but his boxers; and more than once he'd roused from a peaceful sleep to find Michael's feet dangling from the bunk above and inches from his head. But he had to admit that being slapped in the face was probably the worst wake up call of his young life, and typically Dana Cruz was the one to deliver it.

"What the hell was that for?" He demanded groggily, rubbing his stinging cheek.

"You are such a pig!" Dana yelled, at a volume that made him wince so early in the morning, as she scrambled out of the makeshift bed.

It was just a pile of their jackets and a dustsheet Logan had found under the desk, but it had been surprisingly comfortable. The heating had stayed on, so it hadn't been too cold, and Logan had chivalrously given Dana his jumper to sleep under, which she hurled back in his face, literally, as she got to her feet.

"You narcissistic pervert! I can't believe you!"

Logan threw his jumper onto the floor with the rest of his possessions and stood up, trying to determine exactly what he'd done to deserve all the yelling slapping, and flinging of clothes.

"Dana will you take a breath?" he suggested irritably. "What am I supposed to have done?"

"Oh like you don't know. I realize that touching girls up while they're asleep is probably the only way you get any, but playing the innocent is pathetic."

"Excuse me?" he spluttered incredulously.

"You had your hand down my shirt!"

"Don't flatter yourself, it was an accident! Like I'd sink that low." He spat in annoyance.

"Right… you haven't progressed from paraletic yet. I understand."

"Will you stop? I have plenty of opportunities with girls who are awake. And sober for that matter. Why would I hit on you while you're asleep?"

"Because you're a narcissistic pervert, keep up!" Dana fumed, before flouncing over to the door, and jiggling the handle impatiently, in the vain hope it would actually help.

Rather than tell her that her efforts were pointless, and earn yet more yelling, Logan let himself sink back onto the floor, with an exasperated sigh. He had a hard enough time keeping track of where his hands were when he was awake, let alone when he practically comatose. It wasn't his fault she'd cuddled up to him, and it wasn't his fault his hand had accidentally wandered, which was always going to be an unspoken possibility with a seventeen year old boy. He was just glad she hadn't become aware of another unspoken possibility, synonymous for this time of day. It would have just added fuel to the pervert theory, and made her yell louder.

Suddenly Dana swapped her impatient jiggling for a somewhat more active method of jumping up and down, and banging on the door frantically, shrieking loudly enough to scare the hard on off anyone.

"Hello?! HEEEY! HELLOOO? CAN YOU HEAR ME??"

"What are you doing?!" Logan winced.

"Janitor!" She squeaked excitedly. "Don't just sit there, help me!"

Logan hurried to his feet again, and joined Dana's violent attack on the door. The old janitor looked genuinely frightened. He stood perfectly still and gazed around, with a dumbfounded expression on his weathered face, while he tried to work out where all the noise was coming from.

"Bill! Bill over here!!" Logan shouted; kicking the door forcefully, in an attempt to distract the janitors misguided attention from the harmless trashcan he was peering into curiously.

"What are you kids doing in there?" Bill questioned, finally seeing them through the rectangle of reinforced glass in the door.

"We're stuck." Logan explained. "The lock slipped and we can't get out. The door looks pretty old, its probably one of the originals from the 50's and-"

"He doesn't need to know its family history. It's a plank of wood." Dana snapped, elbowing him out of the way. "Can you get us out?"

Bill scratched his head, considering the dilemma for a minute. After failing to persuade them that it wouldn't be at all dangerous for them to jump out of a second floor window, even though they were almost 20 ft up, he took a detour to the janitor's closet, and returned with a metal ruler.

"Right… I need you two to lift the door back up onto its hinges so I can push the lock back into place. Then you can unlock the door from the inside, alright?" he instructed as he lowered himself to his knees.

Logan put one hand on the wall, and tried to slide the fingers of his other hand into the gap between the door and its frame.

"You're doing it wrong." Dana informed him.

He ran his hand down the gap, and bent down, trying to force his fingers underneath the corner, so he could pull it back up.

"You're doing it wrong!" Dana repeated impatiently.

With an annoyed grunt, Logan straightened up, and glared at her. He had nothing to show for his efforts but a painful splinter, but he wasn't going to let her know that she was right.

"Fine." He snapped, stepping out of the way, and folding his arms defiantly. "YOU do it."

Dana scowled at him, and snatched the door handle. Logan just smirked as she reintroduced her failed jiggling method, before angrily kicking it, and bringing her attention back to him.

"What do you think I am? Mr fucking Muscle? I am gonna need your help here, you know!"

Logan unfolded his arms, and grabbed a hardback copy of Hamlet from a nearby table.

"Well since you asked so nicely…"

"Just do it."

He stepped closer to the door, as instructed, and he placed a palm underneath the door handle, while he positioned his other hand on the wall behind Dana to support himself.

"I'll push it up, and you pull."

Surprisingly she did what he'd asked with no arguments or unhelpful suggestions, and pulled the handle up as hard as she could, leaning back against him as she did so. The door creaked and made a clanging noise as it was returned to its original stance. Logan kicked the book under the problem corner of the door, and released some of the tension on the handle, hoping it would stay put.

"Got it." Bill hollered from the other side of the door.

Dana quickly twisted the key, and achieved a thankful click of compliance as the door finally unlocked. She was still leaning into him, and Logan felt her shudder as she released the breath she'd been holding. Her hand brushed against his as she let go of the door handle, sending a familiar tingling through him.

Dana cautiously turned to face him, obviously similarly aware of their almost inappropriate closeness. Especially with Bill the janitor only three and a half inches of oak away.

Logan was very conscious that his arm was still around her, and even more so that his fingers were entwined with hers on the door handle, but he still made no attempt to move. He wasn't sure he was capable of it even if he wanted to.

Dana broke the silence.

"Thanks… for last night." She whispered, gently pulling her hand away from his.

"Don't mention it." He said quietly. "Everyone needs to vent."

"You two ok?" Bill wheezed, as he opened the door, and poked his head through with a concerned expression on his face. Logan dragged his gaze away from Dana, releasing her from her grip, and offered the old man a half-hearted smile.

"Yeah we're fine, thanks for the help Bill." He said sincerely, pressing a fifty into the janitor's hand. "Oh, and I'll pay for the door, just send me the bill." He promised, writing down his dorm number and contact details, as Dana offered her thanks and hurried off. Logan stopped writing momentarily, to watch her go.

"I wont tell the Dean I found you in here." Bill promised with a humoured grin. "But next time you take a lady out on a date, I'd suggest something a little more conventional, and a lot more classy."

"It wasn't-" Logan started, but then having no idea how to end the sentence, he wrote down the last two digits of his phone number, and handed the paper back to the amused janitor. "Thanks Bill."

It wasn't until he got back to his dorm that he realized it was already 8.30. He'd spent ten minutes walking back to his room, and the fact that he'd had to stop three separate times to yell at people for being in his way should have jolted his attention to the fact that the campus was buzzing with people on their way to lessons.

"Where the hell were you all night?" Chase demanded doing a very convincing impression of a worried mother, as Logan dramatically collapsed onto his bed. "We had to arrange a stupid amount of pillows to look like you so the DA wouldn't flip. Zoey called and said Dana never made it back either. Why didn't you have your cell with you? What happened? Where were you?"

"Enough of the twenty questions." Logan mumbled tiredly, his voice muffled by one of the many donated pillows he'd decided to flatten over his face to block out the light. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"You didn't kill her did you?" Michael asked in a very serious tone. "'Cause I know she's annoying, and no one really likes her, but dude."

"Logan?" Chase inquired suddenly sounding very anxious.

"You're idiots." He stated. "No I didn't kill her. We got locked in the English block. She's fine."

"Wait, you got locked it a room with her all night?" Chase asked. Logan didn't need to be able to see his bushy head to recognize the suggestive grin on his face.

"You're also a pervert. Nothing happened." He insisted, slightly surprised at his own discretion.

"Yeah right. Come on your gonna be late."

He was late. Very late, considering he skipped his first four lessons. The first two were only art. It wasn't like he was bad at it, he definitely had a flare and he quite liked it, he just didn't have the concentration or dedication to put in the required effort. That's what Miss Lamorte kept telling him anyway, but he was passing. Logan was almost certain she had a crush on him. As long as he told her how hot she looked every now and then, which didn't take too much imagination given that she was absolutely gorgeous, his grades seemed to even out. Everyone was happy.

Although Mr Geddes was an entirely different story. If Logan entered his class room with a line like 'Whoa, your ass looks amazing today' he was pretty sure he'd be referred to a shrink as high priority in a matter of hours, not to mention ripped to shreds by the teacher himself. Deciding that he'd probably get into more trouble by attending maths than skipping it, Logan decided to take a long shower and a nap instead.

By lunch, he had pretty much caught up on his sleep, and when Zoey reminded him that the afternoon was an independent study period, it slightly improved his mood, which was taking a severe battering as the threats that Mr Geddes had sent his friends away with, reached their target.

"He said something about beating you round the head with chalk erasers until you understand advanced algebra." Zoey recalled. "Oh, and your detentions doubled."

"Dude, two hours..." Michael winced sympathetically, although the sentiment was lessened considerably, due to the word muffling lasagne he was shovelling into his mouth at the time.

"Technically I sat in a class room for like ten hours last night." Logan said sourly. "That should wipe out my next three detentions at least."

"I still don't get how you broke the door." Lola laughed.

"Did Dana throw you at it?" Nicole muttered. "Stupid hairdryer destroying slob…"

"So you guys haven't made up yet?" Chase observed sarcastically.

"She took the fuses out of all of my hairdryers." Nicole recounted in a shaky voice. "Today is the last day my hair will look this smooth and shiny. I might actually kill myself."

"Nicole you can borrow my hairdryer." Zoey offered. "And we sort of made up. She isn't moving out now."

"Yeah, as I recall her exact words were 'If you don't want to live with me, get out.'" Lola said dryly. "It will go down in history as the most touching reconciliation of all times…"

"We better get going if we're gonna make that movie." Zoey said, choosing to ignore her. "Quinn and Mark are gonna meet us there. 'You coming?"

Logan shook his head.

"Nah, I should really do my math homework." He admitted, only just managing to keep a straight face.

He didn't do his homework of course. He attempted to, but a quick glance at the questions reminded him that he didn't have a clue how to go about solving them. He settled himself down on the couch, and turned on the TV, resolving to beg Chase for help later, using the argument that his hair was way too good to compromise with chalk dust.

Logan glanced at the clock. 7:15. This time yesterday he'd been chasing Dana around campus. Arguing with her. Kissing her. He groaned; as the memory of those thirty seconds replayed again in painful slow motion, the same way it had been all day, giving him the weirdest impression that his brain was stuck on repeat. Why couldn't he get her out of his head? She'd been back less than a week, and already the years that she'd been absent had started to fade into meaningless ancient history, and he felt like she'd never been gone.

He sighed and tried to concentrate on the T.V. Friends was on, the one where Phoebe changed her name to Princess Conseula Banana-Hammock. Logan took a sip of his mango smoothie, and chuckled along with the canned laughter as Phoebe introduced her husband to a massage client as 'Crap Bag'. Twenty minutes in, he was so completely immersed, and for once thankful for his short attention span, that he didn't even take his eyes off the T.V screen, when he got up to answer the door.

"Dana…" he said in surprise, her face bringing everything he was trying to distract himself from, swirling back. "What are you doing here?"

She looked gorgeous, as always, in a loose fitting lilac sweater, that was tantalizingly close to slipping off her shoulder. Her hair was swept back into a loose ponytail, which seemed to be failing in its attempt to keep the curls out of her face. Her eyes met his.

"Venting." She offered simply, before letting her lips crash into his.

Instinct told him to pull away, but the second she was in his arms; he wasn't in control of his actions. He closed his eyes, and kissed her back, letting his hand tangle in her hair. Her tongue found his, and one of her hands slid under his shirt. Feeling her drag her fingernails down his back, Logan shuddered and brought his lips down to her neck. He felt her start to unbutton his shirt, and offered no protest. He moved his hand to the small of her back, roughly pulling her closer to him, and officially into the room, before kicking the dorm door shut.

* * *

Please review :) and check out my other Zoey101 fic A Cinderella complex. I'll be updating both soon.


	6. Chapter 6

I took longer than i thought i would writing this chapter, so sorry for the wait, and thankyou everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I really appreciate it :)

CHAPTER SIX

_Having fun_

* * *

Dana ruffled her tousled curls in annoyance and slammed her highlighter pen down on the table. She'd completely lost interest in the English lesson, and the book she was trying to read didn't exactly fill her with enthusiasm when she could concentrate, let alone when her distracted brain made her re-read the same pointless sentence ten times over. She was tired. Dana had a hard time functioning without the recommended eight hours sleep, and anything less had the effect of reducing her witty comebacks to just basic violence. Last night she'd had to make do with an unsatisfying five hours of troubled sleep, and Nicole had already been subjected to a vicious hair pulling as a result.

"What's the matter?" Zoey asked, tentatively rescuing her borrowed highlighter.

"This book sucks." Dana stated, shoving her copy of Cold Mountain off the table, and onto the floor in protest. Ada's 'perpetual hunger' and her stupid rooster were the least of her problems.

"I know, right?" Nicole agreed with surprising enthusiasm given the fact that Dana had almost yanked out a good handful of her precious hair less than two hours ago.

"Have you even finished reading it yet?" Zoey questioned suspiciously.

"Well… I read most of it. But the blind guy seriously creeped me out. I had this horrible nightmare, and then I was too scared to read anymore."

"Isn't the blind guy in the first chapter?" Chase asked slowly.

"Yeah… but it's a really long chapter, AND he's right at the end." Nicole insisted. "So I bought the DVD and I can quote pretty much everything Jude Law says. He's so cute…"

"You're an idiot." Dana told her flatly. She was about to elaborate and shatter Nicole's ignorance by telling her that the film was only based on the book, and that the dialogue was completely different, when Zoey kicked her under the table, and offered her a look that said 'I'll break it to her gently later.'

"You know who looks like Jude Law?" Nicole continued in a rapidly increasing pitch; blissfully unaware that she was very likely to fail the whole subject. "Ryan Taylor. Eeee! He asked me to the dance yesterday!"

"That's great…" Chase muttered, trying to steer the conversation back to the novel. "But right now shouldn't you be trying to find quotes to show how Ruby acts as a Foil to Ada?"

Nicole blinked.

"Who's Ruby? And what's a 'Foil'?"

"Never mind…" admitting defeat, Chase followed suit and closed his book. "So Ryan Taylor huh?"

"I know! He is so hot; don't you think he's so hot? He said he thinks I'm the prettiest girl in our year…"

Dana snorted, interrupting Zoey's pathetic 'aww' that was obviously only emitted due to her polite sense of duty to Nicole.

"Isn't he the guy with the really high prescription jam jar glasses?" she smirked.

"Their not that high." Nicole pouted, blushing slightly "And besides, with them, his vision's perfect. He could read your stupid sucky shirt from 100 feet, so shut up."

Dana glanced down at her top, partly because she'd momentarily forgotten which hastily chosen outfit she'd thrown on that morning, and partly because she needed a few seconds to think of a comeback that would normally form automatically in her mouth. Unfortunately all of her extra brain power usually reserved for wit or otherwise, was being spent on keeping her from collapsing into a state of unconsciousness mid sentence.

"'Bullet for my valentine' are not stupid." Dana spat. "That unusual quality about them that you have a hard time placing is talent. Something your bubble gum pop bands wouldn't know if it walked up and introduced itself."

"Sooo… about that dance." Zoey interrupted loudly, obviously anticipating an imminent assault on Nicole's head, even if the ditzy brunette wasn't bright enough to see it coming. "Are you going with anyone Dana?"

"Ooh, are you going with the mystery guy who kept you out till half one this morning?" Nicole gushed with sudden interest, immediately forgetting the recent attack on her music taste.

Chase glanced at her disapprovingly, catching her eye for the first time that lesson. He raised his eyebrow in mock curiosity as he waited for her inevitable lie.

"'Mystery guy' huh? Come on Dana, spill." Chase insisted.

His voice was laced with sarcasm and he refused to lower his humoured blue eyes from hers as he spoke. He was trying to make her uncomfortable, and remind her that he knew very well where she was last night, and exactly who she was with. After the movie Michael had been dragged back to the girl's dorm just to reassure Nicole that there were no psychotic murderers hiding in her wardrobe, while Chase had headed back to the guys room to try and beat the dorm advisor's ten o'clock routine inspection. He'd got the shock of his life when he stumbled into the room, panting his usual warning of "DA in three minutes!" and found Dana in a very uncompromising position underneath his friend.

Dana just glared back at him. The attitude didn't suit him, and it was completely uncalled for. It wasn't like he'd caught them in the act or anything; they were just talking, but the adult situation obviously made him uncomfortable, especially when he realized that neither of them were clothed. Embarrassed, Chase had started babbling about tomatoes in their many forms, and then done a pretty good impression of one, turning an impressive shade of crimson.

"There is no mystery guy." Dana insisted adamantly, although she found herself lowering her gaze guiltily and assuring the desk in front of her more than her friends. "I told you, I was in the library studying.

"And I told you, I don't believe you." Zoey smiled. "Is he cute?"

Dana was about to snap a retort usually reserved for Nicole that not everything was about cute boys, when the bell signalling the end of the lesson finally rang. She winced as the familiar sound of thirty sets of chair legs scraped across the floor, and quickly got to her feet, glad for an opportunity to escape the conversation.

"I'm gonna go dump my books." She announced the second she saw Zoey's lips part in preparation to repeat her question. She raked her hair out of her face, grabbed her bag, and shot a venomous glare at Chase before immersing herself in the crowd of people all struggling to get through the door at the same time.

Dana set off at a run, and didn't even stop to hoist her heavy bag safely back up onto her shoulders when the straps slipped down her arms. She didn't stop when she realized that she'd left her copy of Cold Mountain sprawled in a neglected heap on the classroom floor. She just kept running like she was trying to escape an enormous invisible fire until she reached the sanctuary of the girl's dorms. Then she let herself catch her breath, and waited for the thoughts that she wouldn't let interrupt her unless she was alone, queue up for contemplation.

She opened her dorm door, abandoned her belongings on the floor, and pulled her t shirt over her head in favour of a warmer jumper, all while considering Chase's major attitude problems and an array of insults she planned to use next time she saw him.

"You know, it's probably not a good idea for you to be wandering around in your underwear with the door wide open." Logan mocked from the doorway with a humoured grin. "Not that I'm complaining or anything…"

Dana released an exasperated breath to show him that he'd scared her, and rolled her eyes at his comment.

"What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too." Logan smirked, as he stepped into the room, and closed the offensive door. "I was trying to get Quinn to help me with my math homework. Then she started using all these really big words, and yelling at me. So I made a run for it when she went to the bathroom. That girl is weird."

"It's taken you four years to realize that? God you're slow." Dana berated sarcastically as she shook the crumpled jumper in an attempt to make it more presentable.

Before she could drag it over her head, Logan walked up behind her and gently pulled the garment out of her hand letting it fall to the floor, and leaving her very conscious that she was only wearing a pair of jeans and a skimpy, almost see through black lace bra.

"That's how you like it…" he murmured softly, sliding a confident hand across her bare stomach and firmly pulling her against him.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you." He whispered; his breath hot on her skin.

Noticing her flinch, he lowered his lips to her neck, and kissed a deliberately slow trail down to her shoulder. Dana tensed, letting a soft sigh escape her lips. Logan groaned quietly under his breath, and pushed himself against her slightly, making his intentions for the lunch hour perfectly clear. She let her hand slip down past his waistband, eliciting another groan, before he pulled her round to face him and kissed her roughly.

Pushing him onto her bed, Dana momentarily wondered how either of them had the energy, but managed to keep the grin off her face as she climbed onto the bed, straddling him. Neither of them had had much sleep. After exhausting Chase's knowledge on sun ripened tomatoes, Logan had insisted on walking her back to her dorm. They had ended up getting distracted, taking a detour and having sex on a desk in the library. She didn't actually get back to her dorm until gone one AM, and it must have been almost three before she fell asleep.

Logan captured her lips with his again, initiating a deep kiss, and pulled her down to a sitting position on his lap. She started moving up and down in a rhythmic motion, and quickened the pace when she felt him grip her tighter.

Logan's hands skimmed up her back lightly as he helped her move. He slipped his fingers underneath the back of her bra, and started to undo the clasp. Dana fiddled with the hem of his thin blue t shirt. She pushed it up over his perfectly toned abdomen, and let her fingers tease softly over his muscles. He broke the kiss to hastily drag his shirt over his head, and abandoned it carelessly on the floor.

"That tickles." He growled, pulling her hand away from his stomach.

Dana smirked, seductively kissing up his jaw line.

"I like watching you squirm." She breathed in his ear, making him shiver.

"So… I-I was… I was thinking," Logan stammered, struggling to keep his voice under control as she started to kiss his neck. "About this dance on Friday. Figured maybe we could go together?"

And the moment was gone. Dana straightened up stiffly, and pushed her hair out of her face.

"I don't think so." She said flatly.

Logan frowned slightly, his dark eyes narrowing as he studied her face.

"Okay…"

"I just don't think it's a good idea for us to confuse what we have." Dana explained impatiently. "There's no point pretending to be something we're not."

Logan's eyes met hers. She could see a definite compound of confusion and hurt squabbling for the position of dominant emotion, but she kept her gaze fixed, and her face unreadable, until he looked away.

"What are we?" he demanded steadily.

Dana sighed softly, and rested her forehead against his. She reoccupied her hands with the waistband of his jeans, and eased open the button before undoing his zip.

"We're having fun." She whispered difinitively, placing her lips over his in a gentle kiss.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys, sorry for the wait again, this chapter took me ages to write. I've decided to focus on this story, because it only has another three or four chapters to go, and then I'll go back to a cinderella complex.

CHAPTER SEVEN

_It's like you never had wings._

* * *

Logan had been lying in the same motionless position on his bed for the last three hours. Of course his unmade bed was so piled high with clothes, recently abandoned laundry, and many other thankfully soft expendables, that it wasn't immediately obvious that he was even in the room. But the music blaring at a deafening volume contradicted that. Everyone in Maxwell hall knew that Logan was there, and the genre that was currently assaulting their eardrums served as a warning of painful mutilation to anyone who dared to complain about it.

He didn't understand what had happened. Well, he did, he knew he'd been forcefully put in his place and dragged down quite a few notches; what he didn't understand was why it hurt so much. Rejection wasn't something that he had to deal with often, but it did happen on occasion, even to the great Logan Reese, and it rarely bothered him. This time it did.

He felt like he'd been floating around above everyone and everything, and someone had just reminded him that it was impossible, and gravity had kicked in. He hadn't hit the ground yet, he was still falling, but he knew that when he admitted to himself what he was already aware of on some level, he was in for a painful landing.

Everything had changed, but at the same time nothing had. He'd still slept with her. She'd still whimpered his name as she came. He'd still held her afterwards, and never wanted to let her go. It was exactly the same as last time. Except this time he knew that there was no future in it, no future with her. He knew she was just using him as a distraction, which fair enough he'd done too many times himself, with too many different girls. He had just never known it could feel like this.

"Dude, you do know that there's volume control on that thing right?" Chase yelled disapprovingly, as he entered the room and slammed the door in an attempt to make himself heard. "There's also a stop button, and the ever popular option of destroying the CD completely…"

Chase often referred to the Deftones as music to slit your wrists to. That was because he'd rather slit his wrists than give any song of theirs a chance and bear with it till the chorus; a point he'd made graphically clear, several time. He bent down and unplugged the CD player, with deliberate malice; something that Logan wouldn't usually stand for, but on this occasion he was relieved. The song 'Change' was mid indistinct slur, and the lyric 'I watched a change in you, it's like you never had wings' was way too relevant.

It had struck a nerve the last four times it had played too, but he hadn't been able to force himself to move. It was like she never had wings, she had never been that angelic perfect person that he'd made her up to be and kept on a pedestal all these years. But the halo was still there, tarnished but firmly in place, and as hard as he tried he couldn't force her off that pedestal.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why am I still un-pummelled?" Chase questioned hesitantly as he retrieved a chilled bottle of Blix from the fridge. "You ok?"

"I'm fine." Logan muttered unconvincingly, as he sat up and motioned for Chase to toss another bottle his way.

"Where were you this afternoon? Seriously, if you keep blowing off math like this you might have to go into a witness protection programme to stop Mr Geddes from doing unspeakable things to you."

Logan forced a weak smile.

"I was with Dana."

"I don't need details." Chase insisted hurriedly. "I got front row seats last time, remember?"

"Yeah…"

Chase looked at him curiously, obviously expecting a witty remark about the size of his penis, or at the very least mock embarrassment.

"…Did you guys have an argument or something?"

"Just a wake up call." Logan said, trying to give the impression that he couldn't care less, as he twisted the lid off his bottle and took a few calming swigs of his cherry Blix.

"Elaborate." Chase ordered, seeing right through his friend's dismal attempt at casual, and taking a concerned seat next to him.

Logan sighed, and closed his eyes, complying for god knows what reason.

"I think I'm in love with her." He choked; his voice cracking as the metaphorical ground finally hit, and shattered every bone. "She doesn't feel the same."

* * *

The line was bad. The static crackled loudly, and the distance distorted the sound of her mother's voice so much that Dana barely recognized it. It had taken five minutes of pacing and fiddling with the volume and reception of her phone just to work out who was on the other end. It was almost ironic that she heard every word of the following sentence in crystal clear high definition.

"I booked you're ticket this afternoon. You're going back to Paris two weeks tomorrow."

"…W-what…?" she yelled, gripping the phone to the side of her head so tightly she was sure it would leave an imprint.

"I'll emai- flight inf-ation –morrow. I-"

A rhythmic beeping sounded in her ear, informing her that the connection had been lost, and to please hang up and try again. She just about had the presence of mind to press the cancel button and let the phone fall out of her hand. There was very little chance of her managing to remember and dial a ten-digit phone number.

Dana carefully sat down on her bed, and brought her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her comforter around her shoulders tightly, and buried her face in it. The only vaguely comforting thing about it was the lingering smell of Logan's aftershave that was still woven into the fabric, and even that wasn't enough to stop the tears. The droplets forming and cascading down her face didn't even register.

The familiar throbbing of a headache was steadily increasing in her temples, as defeat was slowly realized. She lacked any control over her own life. She couldn't keep her family together. She couldn't stop the arguments or the plate throwing, or the terrible things her parents said to each other whenever they were forced into the same room. She couldn't stop her granddad from dying. She couldn't even control which country she lived in for god's sake. She was pathetic. A muted reflection of the independent strong willed Dana Cruz who used to confidently stride these halls.

She constantly had to remind herself of the way the old Dana would act, or the things that she would say, just so that she could keep up the pretence that that person still existed. She'd somehow lost herself over the last three years. And every time a major decision was taken out of her hands, another piece of her faded away. The truth was, she didn't know who she was anymore.

Dana was mid self loathing thought when room 101's purple door unexpectedly swung open with a lazy creak, yawning a cool breeze into the dorm.

"I'm just saying," Lola was laughing, "Jack sparrow is hotter than Johnny Depp."

Zoey frowned at her incredulously, and shook her head. "Jack sparrow IS Johnny Depp. Just with long hair and makeup…"

"I am not a lesbian!"

Zoey giggled at her overdramatic friend being, and tossed her bag carelessly onto her bed. Her humoured gaze rested on Dana, and her smile fell, concern flooding her face.

"Dana? What's wrong? Are you ok?"

That's when Dana realized how ridiculous she must look, curled up on her bed in the foetal position, practically hiding under her duvet with a flood of unstoppable tears dribbling down her gormless face.

"N-nothing." She stammered, hurriedly wiping the tears from her face, and forcing her features back into her signature scowl. "I'm fine; I just… got hair spray in my eye."

"Both of them?" Zoey asked sceptically.

"Yeah. It's pretty painful, you want me to demonstrate?"

Dana reached out and grabbed the aerosol can, giving it a few threatening shakes. The action lost valuable menace when she jumped slightly, as her abandoned phone vibrated insistently next to her, the screen proudly flashing with the words 'incoming call'. She tightened her death-grip on her comforter, and just looked at it, watching as it hovered across about a centimetre with each vibration, inching closer and closer to the edge of bed.

"You do realize that will stop if you answer it." Lola offered sarcastically.

Dana didn't bother to look up. Her attention was focused on the phone, and whether or not her mother would hang up before it buzzed its way onto the floor.

"Seriously will you just take the damn call?"

"Will you just mind your own business?"

Lola placed a slender hand on her non existent hip, tossed her wavy hair out of her defiant eyes and glared at her.

"I would actually call my insane roommate having a breakdown and hiding from her phone, my business."

Dana clenched her jaw shut, and went for the killing two birds with one stone approach. She grabbed the phone mid vibration, and hurled it at Lola, who somehow managed to sidestep out of the way at the last possible moment, and scream like she'd just fallen victim to an attempted assassination. The phone smashed into a sunflower on the windowsill and shattered the terracotta pot, toppling it onto the desk. Muddy soil, still sodden from that mornings loving and thorough watering, took the opportunity to escape its terracotta prison, and enthusiastically splattered everything within 40cm. That included Zoey's astonished face, and a neatly folded blue square of cashmere that happened to be situated directly below the rogue pot.

"My new sweater!" Lola shrieked, mercilessly yanking the limp homeless flower off her precious sweater and hurling it over her shoulder, before shaking the garment vigorously in an attempt to limit the damage.

"My sunflower!" Zoey yelped, bending down next to the discarded plant. "Dana that was a present from my mom!"

"You so did that on purpose." Lola spat accusingly, hugging her sweater.

"I was aiming for you." Dana reminded her icily, barely able to see the funny side of the situation, despite the infuriated expression on Lola's face.

"This is ruined! You do realize you owe me 30 bucks?"

"Oh good luck with that."

"If you damage someone else's property it's polite to offer to replace it."

Dana bent down to retrieve her phone, and slipped it into her pocket. The back had fallen off, and the screen was cracked, but at least it had stopped ringing.

She straightened up stiffly, and looked Lola up and down. The girl was nowhere near as special as she thought she was. Okay, she was pretty, but not enough to balance out her arrogant attitude. It enlarged her head to such an extent that it was a wonder her tiny shoulders could accommodate the extra weight. Time was, Dana would have taken her out in a heartbeat, just to teach her a lesson.

"Firstly, I am not polite. Secondly, it's your own fault; if you hadn't moved, it wouldn't have happened."

"You can't just go around throwing electrical equipment at people!" Lola yelled, stamping her foot angrily, like a toddler mid-tantrum.

"Next time it'll be a six foot sound system."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Are you still talking?"

Zoey scrambled to her feet, finally accepting the fate of her sunflower, and stepped in between them.

"Will you guys stop?" she yelled, with a very uncharacteristic flash of anger in her voice; it tightened her lips as she clenched her jaw, and filled her usually understanding eyes with a genuinely unnerving blaze.

"Not until she apologizes." Lola announced superiorly, crossing her arms, and turning her head away from Dana.

"Again, good luck with that."

"Zoeeeey!" Lola whined.

Zoey rolled her eyes in annoyance, and started fiddling with her t-shirt, which shed just realized was in a similar state to Lola's splattered sweater.

"Dana, for god's sake, just say you're sorry. I don't even care if you mean it, I'm sick of all of this arguing!"

"You made Zoey yell." Lola stated with a childish pout.

"You make me want to punch myself."

"You're such a bitch!"

"And you're an anorexic slut, but what are you gonna do?"

Lola protectively wrapped her arms around her tiny frame, and did her best fish impression as she desperately tried to think of a comeback. Zoey just gawped at her. Dana couldn't explain it, but the tense silence made her feel better. The fact that Zoey and Lola were speechless meant that she'd had some effect on them. It reassured her that her actions still had consequences even if they were negative. It made her feel in control, if only for a few seconds.

"You're attitude really needs to change." Zoey stated unsteadily, launching into an in depth psychoanalysis. "I don't know what your deal is Dana, but you can't keep treating people like this. You're rude, you're violent. You attacked Logan with a compass for crying out loud! If you keep this up, you're going to lose all of your friends. I want to help you, but I can't if you won't tell me what's wrong."

By the end of her speech, Zoey's voice was wobbling unevenly, and her eyes were brimming with unspilled tears. Dana almost felt guilty. She almost considered bursting into fresh tears and telling her everything. But of course, Dana Cruz would never do that. So she bared her teeth and went for the kill.

"Oh go fuck Chase."

"Dana!" Lola gasped.

"What? Someone needs to screw that goody-goody attitude out of her." She finished coldly.

The hurt expression on Zoey's face didn't bother her at all. At least that's what she told herself. Regret was nowhere to be found as she defiantly stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard that it bounced back out of its hinges and reverberated loudly into the stunned silence. This place didn't mean anything to her anymore. The people here didn't know her any better than she knew herself. Maybe it was for the best that she was leaving.

* * *

Please review :)


End file.
